The really terrible day for the USS William P. Lawrence (DDG-110)

via USNI News.

Vavasseur ordered the ship to travel at speeds of more than 30 knots in high winds and sea. Along the way, the ship recovered Indian 617.
Less than ten minutes after the helicopter had landed on the deck and the helicopter was chocked and chained with rotors spinning, a wall of water came over the starboard side of the ship and knocked off the tail off the helo.
The helicopter broke free of the chains and the still spinning rotor blades gouged the flight deck and the hangar door.
“Without a tail rotor to counter main rotor torque as well as no longer being secured to the flight deck,
the aircraft spun freely on the flight deck,” according to the findings of fact from the report.
“An additional roll to port resulted in Indian 617 going over the side.”
The so-called wall of water was the result of the ship rolling to starboard just as a wave hit the hull of the ship.
“Upon impact with the hull, the water from the wave was squeezed against the hull and redirected upward, creating a thick ‘wall’ of water which the prevailing winds pushed over the flight deck, enveloping Indian 617,” read the report.
The Navy believes Jones and Gibson were incapacitated when the helicopter went over the side, leaving the pair unable to escape. The other three crew members were rescued.
The Navy issued Vavasseur a counseling letter and she turned over command of the ship in December.
Vavasseur — a 1994 U.S. Naval Academy Graduate — currently works at U.S. Surface Forces Command, according to a report in the San Diego Union Tribune.

I don't know because I wasn't there but that sounds like a horrible day that could have been prevented.

More to the point.

Why is she still in the Navy?  I've seen people busted from service for less.

Read the entire article here.